1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular air-conditioner, more particularly to the configuration of the ducts of a vehicular air-conditioner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known in the art, as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, is a vehicular air-conditioner provided with an air-conditioning unit for mainly the front seats having both a rear face duct for blowing air-conditioned air toward the upper torsos of the rear seat passengers and a rear foot duct for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torsos of the rear seat passengers so as to enhance the feeling of the rear seat passengers of being air-conditioned. FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of one such vehicular air-conditioner of the related art, while FIG. 2 is a schematic rear view of FIG. 1 seen from the vehicle rear side to the vehicle front side.
Reference numeral 100 represents a front face opening portion which opens at an upper position of the air-conditioning unit and blows air-conditioned air toward the upper torsos of the front seat passengers. At the upstream side (based on the flow of air, same below) from the front face opening portion 100 is opened a rear face opening portion 102 for blowing air-conditioned air toward the upper torsos of the rear seat passengers. At the side of the rear face opening portion 102 is opened a foot opening portion 101, explained later. These two opening portions 101 and 102 have dampers 106 which enable air-conditioned air to be introduced selectively in either direction or in two directions simultaneously.
The front face opening portion 100 is provided with for example a rear face duct 103 made of plastic. Air-conditioned air is designed to be blown from the rear face duct 103 toward a rear face outlet (not shown) arranged at the rear seat side.
The fore-mentioned foot opening portion 101 is for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torsos of the passengers. The foot opening portion 101 is provided with a foot duct 104 extending downward. At the right side of the vehicle at a lower position of the foot duct 104 is formed a right side front foot opening portion 105a (serving also as one front foot outlet in the compartment) for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torso of the right side front seat passenger as shown in FIG. 2. On the other hand, at the left side of the vehicle at a lower position of the foot duct 104 is formed a left side front foot opening portion 105b (serving also as another front foot outlet in the compartment) for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torso of the left side front seat passenger as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 1.
Further, at the downstream side from the right side front foot opening portion 105a in the foot duct 104 is formed a right side rear foot opening portion 106a for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torso of the right side rear seat passenger. Further, at the downstream side from the left side front foot opening portion 105b in the foot duct 104 is formed a left side rear foot opening portion 106b for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torso of the left side rear seat passenger.
The right side rear foot opening portion 106a and the left side rear foot opening portion 106b have not been shown with rear foot ducts connected to them. Air-conditioned air is blown from these toward a right side rear foot outlet and a left side rear foot outlet arranged at the rear seat side.
Accordingly, the air-conditioned air flowing into the foot duct 104 is split among the right side front foot opening portion 105a, the left side front foot opening portion 105b, the right side rear foot opening portion 106a, and the left side rear foot opening portion 106b.
In the above air-conditioner of the related art, however, since as shown in FIG. 1 the foot duct 104 and the rear face duct 103 are arranged aligned completely independently in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle, there is the problem that the length of the air-conditioning unit in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle becomes large.